lieshod White Lies in Joseph Conrads Heart of Darkness Essay

blanched Lies in heart of tail In his novella Heart of vestige (1899), Joseph Conrad through his principal narrator, Marlow, reflects upon the evils of the human condition as he has experienced it in Africa and Europe. Seen from the perspective of Conrads nameless, objective persona, the evils that Marlow encountered on the expedition to the heart of darkness, Kurtzs inner(a) Station on the banks of the snake-like congo River, fall into two categories the petty misdemeanors and petty(a) lies that are common- place, and the greater evils -- the grotesque acts society attributes to madmen. That the first class of malefaction is committed to the second is illustrated in the downfall of the storys secondary protagonist, the tragically deluded and hubristic Mr. Kurtz. The European idealist, accept the lies of his Company and of the economic imperialism that supports it, is unprepared for the test of character that the Congo imposes, and succumbs to the potential difference for the diabolical latent within every human consciousness. Although numerous critics (including Johanna M. Smith, incision Hyland, Herbert Klein, and Garrett Stewart) have drawn attention to how Marlows lie to the Intended informs the whole foregoing text and how that culminating scene with the Intended is connected to Marlows initial impression of capital of Belgium as a whited sepulchre (how appropriate in light of Belgian King Leopold IIs hypocritical defense of his private companys rapacious exploitation of the ludicrously- named Congo Free State), few have until recently focussed on how the lie affects the readers reaction to Marlow as the protagonist and narrator of Conrads Congo tale. reply questions which the dead mans Intended poses him reg... ...Rosmarin, Adena. Darkening the Reader Reader- Response Criticism and Heart of Darkness . Joseph Conrad, Heart of Darkness A Case prove in Contemporary Criticism , ed. Ross C. Murfin. New York St. Martins Press, 1989. Pp. 148-171 . Smith, Johanna M. Smith. Too Beautiful Altogether Patriarchal Ideology in Heart of Darkness . Joseph Conrad, Heart of Darkness A Case Study in Contemporary Criticism , ed. Ross C. Murfin. New York St. Martins Press, 1989. Pp. 179-198. Stewart, Garrett. Lying as demise in Heart of Darkness . PMLA 95 (1980) 319- 331. Trilling, Lionel. Huckleberry Finn . The Liberal Imagination Essays on Literature and Society . New York Doubleday Anchor Books, 1950. Pp. 100-113. Wright, Walter F. Ingress to The Heart of Darkness . Romance and Tragedy in Joseph Conrad . New York Russell and Russell, 1966. Pp. 143-160.